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BEIRUT — As Syrian forces struggled to drive rebels from the country’s largest city, key ally
Iran tried yesterday to start an alternative political process to address the crisis.

It’s unlikely that the one-day forum attended by representatives of about 30 countries will
result in any international consensus, but it shows Iran’s resolve to stand by President Bashar
Assad as his forces try to crush a 17-month-old uprising.

Yesterday, Syrian rebels said they were low on ammunition but still managed to put up resistance
against a regime ground offensive in the city of Aleppo, a center of fighting for more than two
weeks.

Tehran billed yesterday’s conference as a way to focus on dialogue — an alternative to
Western-led initiatives that call for Assad to give up power. Iran has said in the past that the
Syrian regime’s critics fail to take into account violence by the rebels.

“Iran is against the killing of unarmed people and citizens by any side,” Iranian Foreign
Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said at the gathering.

He also warned that sending weapons to the opposition will only fuel the crisis, and he accused
rebels of using civilians as “human shields.”

Syrian rebels last week intercepted a bus carrying 48 Iranians in a Damascus suburb and seized
them. Rebels claimed the men are military personnel, including some members of Iran’s powerful
Revolutionary Guard, who were on a “reconnaissance mission” to help Assad’s crackdown.

Iran, however, says the 48 were pilgrims visiting a Shiite shrine in Damascus. Salehi said
Wednesday that some of the pilgrims are retired members of the army and Revolutionary Guard.

The overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels have also seized 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who have
been held in northern Syria since May.

The U.S. dismissed the Iranian gathering.

“We think the Iranian behavior in Syria is destructive,” State Department spokesman Patrick
Ventrell said. “It’s just hard for us to imagine that after putting so much effort into keeping
Assad in power … how they can be a constructive actor in facilitating a political solution to the
crisis.”

In other developments yesterday:

• Assad appointed a new prime minister to replace the one who defected to neighboring Jordan
this week. State-run news agency SANA said he appointed Health Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi, a
Sunni member of the ruling Baath party from the southern province of Daraa, the birthplace of the
revolt.

• Diplomats said it’s likely that veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi will be named to
replace Kofi Annan as the U.N.-Arab League joint special envoy for Syria.